EasyJet appoints board member as COO amid cost-cutting

Bloomberg

EasyJet Plc appointed Christine Browne, a former executive at tour operator TUI AG’s airline division, as chief operating officer amid efforts to reduce costs and ride out turmoil across the European market that’s eating into the discount carrier’s profit.
Browne, 56, will leave a non-executive post on EasyJet’s board to take up her new position as of Oct. 1, the Luton, England-based airline said in a statement. She will succeed Warwick Brady, who has been COO since 2009 and who will leave the carrier.
EasyJet is set on Oct. 6 to give an update on its performance since British voters decided in late June to exit the European Union, after shying away from providing an earnings forecast in the referendum’s immediate aftermath. The carrier said in July that costs excluding fuel would fall 1 percent in year through September as it works to offset overcapacity in Europe compounded by a slump in demand tied to a string of terrorist attacks in the region and North Africa.
Chief Executive Officer Carolyn McCall, who pledged in February to stay at EasyJet “until I’m 90” after being linked with British retailer Marks & Spencer Group Plc, said early this month that airline investors have “ overreacted” to the Brexit referendum. EasyJet has lost a third of its value since the June 23 vote. The airline is in talks to obtain an air operating certificate from an EU member state which it could use to fly between the U.K. and other countries remaining in the bloc.
Browne served as managing director of Thomson Airways from 2007 until 2014, when it bought out by TUI and she became COO at the European travel operator’s airline division. Before that, she was managing director at First Choice Airways. She has been on EasyJet’s board since January.